A pair of defensive miscues pegged back the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night in Hamilton, as they managed a 2-2 draw in an eventful first leg of the Canadian Championship semifinal against Forge.

Jesper Sørensen went with a modestly rotated lineup for this one, sprinkling in the requisite Canadians. That includes Isaac Boehmer in goal behind the first choice backline, Ralph Priso in midfield alongside J.C. Ngando and Seb Berhalter and Jayden Nelson alongside Brian White and Daniel Rios in the front three.

Vancouver’s mindset entering the match had to be “don’t beat yourself.” The away side started flat and failed that principal mission, digging themselves in a hole in the 10th minute when a horrendous defensive header from Utvik that pinged backwards and fell right to Nana Ampomah, who made no mistake with his resulting shot to give Forge a 1-0 lead before the ‘Caps could even fully get comfortable.

In truth, it was a poor start from the Caps immediately before and after the goal, with too many sloppy passes and touches letting Forge off the hook for their own miscues. But the centerbacks atoned for any earlier errors, with a monster Sebastian Berhalter header starting the second phase of a set piece. The ball found its way to Utvik, and he coolly squared it for Blackmon, whose header found an empty net just eight minutes after Forge took the lead.

They soon doubled their goal total, with Nelson latching onto the ball just inside the box and nicely centring the ball for Brian White, whose touch trickled past Jassem Koleilat and into the net. It was a good response from Vancouver, who held the bulk of the possession after equalizing and looked in control, advancing with relative ease into more dangerous positions. Ngando floated out wider to try and provide another runner to overload the wide areas, while Nelson toggled over to the right-hand side of the pitch.

It was another absolute gift from Utvik, however, that gave Forge a lifeline. After a routine save, Boehmer rolled the ball to the Norwegian, trying to restart play. Utvik was charged down by Amponah, who forced the defender to short circuit, leaving the ball behind as he tried to break away and teeing it up for the winger, who played an easy square ball to give Brian Wright an empty net to tap into.

Shortly after halftime, White was hacked down by Tristan Borges and appeared to pick up a knock, forcing him to be withdrawn for Emmanuel Sabbi. Long term it is a hold your breath situation but the injury also it left the ‘Caps without one of their most effective players. Aside from the goal, White was effective at holding up play and winning ground duels with Forge defenders, helping keep the ‘Caps in control.

White’s withdrawal coincided with Forge holding onto more of the ball and trying to force Boehmer into saves from distance or cause another defensive miscue. In truth, however, much of the second 45 minutes was choppy, with lots of injury stoppages and little real chance for momentum to be established.

The ‘Caps had only a few clear cut chances in the second half. Sabbi saw his deflected shot test Koleilat and Berhalter curled a free kick just over the bar. The biggest highlight from VWFC’s perspective was likely the debut for Kenji Cabrera, who came on with about 10 minutes to play. Otherwise, Vancouver focused on managing things and avoiding any further issues to gut out a 2-2 draw.

Stray Thoughts

• I feel a bit bad piling on to Bjorn Utvik (because everyone else will be), but my God, that is the worst match I’ve seen from a Whitecaps centerback in a long time. Sam in our group chat recalled a Jake Nerwinski as CB performance that was of similar quality, but if you can think of any similar disasterclasses, let me know. In any event, this will hopefully light a fire under the front office’s recruitment for another CB. This underscored how unreliable Utvik has been this year — he can be MLS starting quality but if the trade-off is matches like this, that isn’t going to fly in the playoffs.
• Credit to Tate Johnson, who looks like he went the distance in the boxing ring, and Tristan Blackmon, who played the last 30 minutes with a dead arm. You can’t say the Canadian Championship doesn’t matter to these guys.
• This was another match where the bench just wasn’t deep enough to let the ‘Caps change the game in the second half. The injuries and heat index didn’t help (and I thought Jeevan Badwal gave a good account of himself as a substitute) and Vancouver without White just couldn’t dictate the game the way they did in the first 45 minutes.
• Ralph Priso was really quite good in this, hoovering up some misplayed balls in the midfield and spurring things on in transition in a way we often don’t see from him.
• Forge will probably be the happier side with a draw, given that they didn’t create a ton of obvious scoring chances that didn’t come as a result of Utvik’s howlers. And Forge’s form as of late, the ‘Caps probably did about as well as you could have expected to keep the home side in check given the level of rotation. Vancouver will be hopeful that the month layoff before the second leg will let them integrate Thomas Muller, Cabrera and any other signings, as well as re-integrate Ali Ahmed and Ryan Gauld. That would give them the firepower to get this tie over the line.

Three Stars

3. Tristan Blackmon

Aside from gritting out the knock in the second half, I thought Blackmon dealt well with a dangerous front three from Forge. He was perhaps lucky not to give away a penalty, but otherwise looked comfortable and helped break the lines when the ‘Caps had their spells of heavy possession in the first half (he had the secondary assist on White’s goal). Plus the goal of his own.

2. Ralph Priso

As I said above, I thought Priso was really quite good, doing his best Andres Cubas impression and showing some danger off the dribble and in transition. A match worthy of the number six shirt Priso will now be wearing.

1. Brian White

It might feel a bit odd to give this nod to a player who was effectively on the pitch for a single half but it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the ‘Caps didn’t dominate possession nearly as much, nor pop up with looks in transition quite as often, once White left the field. His movement and dribbling created real headaches for Forge and he linked up with Jayden Nelson well, with Nelson repaying the favour on the goal. The ‘Caps will hope to get favourable news on his prognosis ASAP.

(Image: Vancouver Whitecaps FC)